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Updated: 2005
In no particular order: I am. I am one of God's children, spiritual,
a believer, an artist, generous, unique, a libra, just, open-minded,
independent, different, misunderstood, compassionate, giving,
generous, devoted, honest, caring, sensitive, indecisive, understanding,
intelligent, deep, poetic, random, creative, inquisitive, colourful,
passionate, intense, "animated", fun, silly, goofy,
sarcastic, a smart ass, feisty, forgiving, loving, loyal, passionate,
kind, honest, a dreamer, charming, kind hearted, a believer of
self improvement, an animal lover, a lover and respecter of all
walks of life, a good daughter, sister, a good friend and a good
neighbor. :)
I know a girl...
I know this mid-twenties girl that was born and
raised in Southern California. She is single with no kids, and
has been on a path of introspection for quite some time. She is
an artist not only with her hands but more so with her mind, so
in turn she has trouble translating her thoughts into words so
that they actually come out right - as she often thinks with deep
passion, feeling and emotion instead of with words. Sometimes
she just doesn't say anything at all because of this. This is
one of her biggest struggles...I guess you could say she's lost
in translation.
She's learned that the material things do not bring you happiness,
it's making the best out of what you've got and have been given
and being grateful for every breath that we are fortunate enough
to be able to breathe. Happiness is not found externally. On the
contrary happiness is found within ourselves. Finding inner peace
is happiness. She's learned it's all about perspective. If you
say you can or you can't, you're right. It's your choice. She
always strives to make herself a better person by recognizing
her faults and working on them and making her strengths even stronger.
Not only for herself but for those around her. She does her best
to appreciate the little things that so many people tend to overlook
and take for granted. She sometimes tries to show other people
what she sees because of the immense beauty in it only to be saddened
that many cannot, for they will not open their eyes and choose
to remain blind. The ones that have choosen to see, have said
it has changed their lives for the better. Making other people
feel good, smile and laugh inspires her. Making another
person's day brings her joy. She believes in second chances. There
is nobody in this world that she hates. Even when somebody hurts
her deeply, we are all human and she knows that most painful experiences
are the ones we learn the most valuable lessons from (if we allow
our minds to accept & learn not deny & reject), so eventually
she forgives them and lets go of the negativity. When she has
hurt somebody it kills her inside and does what she can to repair
the damage, though some people aren't as forgiving as she is.
Family comes first for her so she makes sure they know how much
she loves them by calling or visiting every chance she gets.
She lives minutes away from the beach in a 6 bedroom house with
5 other roomates, she has all the love she could ask for from
family and friends, has a beautiful cuddly parrot as a pet, a
good job and drives the coolest convertible ever. She drives with
the top down every chance she gets, plays the tunes as loud as
she can and bops her head to the beat, singing along to the music,
not really caring if people can see. Sometimes she pauses and
thinks to herself, "Life is good" and smiles, thanking
God for blessing her so. Sure, life gets rough - too rough, and
there is no denying she's let it get the best of her. But the
rainbow is always waiting for her after the storm. Just like it
does for every one of us.
I love being that girl.
I was 18 years old when I first started surfing the net. My
first chatting experience was in WBS chat. Then I chatted in yahoo
LA for a while. I loved it. I found that I could talk to people
without feeling like I was being  judged.
I actually had an easier time talking to complete strangers than
with my own friends. I found that very interesting. I also found
myself not only receiving advice from others, but giving advice
as well and feeling so happy when I knew I had helped somebody
out, if even a little. Chatting got a little bit old after a while
without a picture. The first thing a person asks you after a/s/l
is "Do you have a picture?" Everytime I said I didn't, people
seemed to lose interest almost immediately. Then I just simply
got tired of the question "Describe yourself" having to tell everybody
over and over again what my hobbies were, occupation, etc just
got repetitive. So I made a web page. My first web page was at
WBS as toouniqueartist in Nov97, then came Geocities, Tripod &
Angelfire. I put my artwork on there, pictures, my profile, etc.
After a couple of months, I got very interested in web design.
I was on a personal mission to learn html and get my web page
looking better than just basic html web pages.
I met a friend from the net that just happened to host web sites.
He liked my work and suggested I should purchase a domain name
and make my "web page" into a "website" What would I name it though?
latinabarbie.com sounded perfect. It never crossed my mind that
it would grow so fast, and become so well known that even Mattel
themselves would send me orders to give my website over to them.
Especially when
it's not making any money! Back to buying latinabarbie.com - I
bought the site when I didn't have a computer on August 15, 1998.
My friend let me borrow his computer for a while and on March
16, 1999 latinabarbie.com was officially launched. I submitted
my site to every search engine I could find, signed dozens and
dozens of guest books, went in chat rooms and kept giving out
the latinabarbie.com link, posted on message boards galore, everything
I could think of that did not require spending money. Within a
couple of months I had hundreds of people visiting my site a day.
Within a year, thousands. I believe that the key to making this
site successful was converting the site from a personal web page
to an online community where everybody can be involved and be
a part of. From profiles, to message boards, to chat and free
e-mail, poetry and advice- there's a little bit of something for
everybody here.
Mattel contacted me a few days after Nov. 12, 1999. I think that
day just crushed each and every part of my heart into mush In
their letter they stated that they were interested in using latinabarbie.com
for "commercial purposes" and my ownership of latinabarbie.com
"interferes with Mattel's right to commercially exploit
the domain name latinabarbie.com" they continue with
"...Accordingly, we must insist that you transfer the domain
to Mattel and, in anticipation of your cooperation..."
and they have the nerve to finish off the paragraph with "...and
upon receipt of the signed and notarized Agreement we will forward
you a check in the amount of $70.00 to cover the registration
fee. " 70 dollars? 70!?! They not only wanted
to take away one of the most important and special things in my
life, but they wanted to give me $70 for a website that generated
70,000-100,000 unique user sessions per MONTH!
The first question I had was why? I mean why would a huge billion
dollar company want a website with the  name
like latinabarbie.com? To convert it into a website for Barbie
dolls? Come on, if you look up barbie in the search engine it's
not like my site comes up. Even if it did, on the front of my
site it specifically says the site is not associated with barbie
dolls or mattel. Nowhere in my site do I refer myself as a barbie
doll, do I advertise barbie dolls or slander their beloved doll
in any way, shape or form. Let's get one thing straight. I do
not advertise the word Barbie. It is one word, latinabarbie. Second,
my mother's sister's name is Barbara. Yet now they're telling
me my site rightfully belongs to them when I had been using the
nickname for years? Furthermore, latinabarbie.com did not make
any profit. If their argument was that I had banners, well do
you really expect somebody to spend a couple thousand hours on
a website and not spend any money on it at all? They're going
to cry over a couple of hundred dollars if that that I make off
the site? That's considered going corporate? This website did
cost me a lot of my time, as well as some money here and there.
I think the least I deserve is to have a couple of banners here
and there. Still, that was a problem to them, as well as the party
I threw back in July of 2000. Of course, they assumed I made money
off of it even though I specifically stated the party was not
for profit but for people to meet each other. If anything, money
was lost in the party from the cost of flyers, location, etc.
Within the 10 days Mattel gave me to reply, I contacted some
lawyers to see if I had a case. I did. They sent a letter to Mattel
letting them know they would contact them shortly and to contact
them not me from then on. On
December 1, 1999 I received an e-mail with the subject of "Trademark
Infringements" and stated that I was infringing on their
name and continued with "...Therefore, We hereby demand
that you immediately cease and desist any and all use, advertisement
of the trademarked "Barbie ® " name within your URL and website."
I had until December 31, 1999 to Cease and Desist. In my opinion,
these two letters contradict each other. One states they are interested
in using the domain for commercial purposes and that is I need
to sign it over, in turn they will give me $70 for the registration
fee. In the other- I'm infringing on their rights and they're
not only demanding I shut down the site, but are threatening to
take legal action if I don't. Interesting.
My lawyers go back and forth for a few months with Mattel, while
racking up the bill. I come to the conclusion that I simply cannot
afford to pay these huge amounts and contemplate if it's even
worth trying to fight it. NBC
(channel 4 over here) finds out (from a relative) about my situation
and the executive producer calls me telling me they want to air
my story! She told me they all sat down in a meeting discussing
different current events, and that when mine came up, they all
agreed that this would be a great story. "Big toy company
VS. Girl Next door" type of deal. This was on Friday. I agreed
to do the story and she told me she would have a reporter come
by the house Monday morning. I was excited yet scared. I really
didn't want to get Mattel angry, but they let me no choice. When
I told my lawyers what I intended to do, they wanted no part of
it. I let them go and decided to go through with NBC.
Sunday rolls around and my friend calls me up and says, "
I just saw you on TV!" I was stunned. How was that? Turns
out they started making advertisements in their commercials that
this was to air 5pm on Monday. They put the front picture of my
site (which I was in) and showed somebody clicking on the picture
link to get in. I was pretty excited I must admit. I hadn't even
done the interview yet and they were already advertising! It came
out on primetime during the commercials. A couple of more people
called me up telling me they saw me on these commercials. Monday
rolls around and I do the interview. I wrote all about it in my
journal in May.
You can read the details in there. It turned out great :)
About 5 minutes after it aired, My cell phone rings. It's KMEX
(channel 34). They're interested in doing a story as well. I accepted.
A couple of days later my story aired all over the US as well
as overseas. The interview did not go smoothly I might add. The
reporter they send didn't know a thing about my site and she just
had a bad attitude. They also mentioned in the story that Mattel
had threatened to throw me in jail. I never once said anything
like that. Ridiculous! They sent me flowers once they realized
that they had "Stretched the truth" in their story,
which was nice of them.
I only heard from Mattel one more time. By this time a lawyer
contacted me and was interested in helping me with the case. As
of right now I still have him on my side, waiting for some sort
of word from Mattel. They have filed a complaint in New York,
however they really need to get their facts straight in that complaint.
There are a lot of things they state that are untrue and it just
looks like they're trying to make me look bad, like I'm out to
get them or something! I never had a problem with them before
they contacted me. I would have never gone to the media if they
had just been fair from the beginning. The case is still open,
however I haven't heard from them in a few months now, which is
a good sign. latinabarbie.com lives on. latinabarbie.com waits
in the shadows in case latinabarbie.com gets brought down by the
corporate bullies. I have rights, Mattel knows that. If they try
to take my rights away from me, I won't let them take me down
without speaking up and letting the world know about it.
Update July 27, 2003
Out of curiosity, I checked to see if barbielatina.com was taken,
and low and behold it is a Barbie website! It is the same website
as barbie.com has however it is in spanish. You would think they
would at least put Teresa (Mattel's 'latina' barbie) on it, but
no, same Blondy Barbie as always. I then checked to see when it
was registered and ironically it was registered on my birthday
of 2002! hahah The irony of that is great, out of all the days
of they year they register it on the birthday of that one girl
that wouldn't give them the original website intended to be used
instead of barbielatina.
Another minor irony is that latinabarbie.com was put on litigation
through network solutions on my birthday of 200 as well, which
is why I created latinabarbie.net instead...I cannot change webhosts
with latinabarbie.com and unfortunately the host of latinabarbie.com
is on cannot host my site any longer without charging me an arm
and a leg.
In conclusion, Mattel threatened to sue me, and I did not give
in like they thought I would. They ended up looking like jerks
to the public and realized that taking my site would harm them
more than anything so they just left me alone. latinabarbie.com
lives on as what it is today, not a commercially exploited Barbie
doll website like Mattel, Inc. wanted it to be.
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